Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Rieck’s POV

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នគ 54

55 vouchers

The folder was open on the desk, page after page of neat notes in Aurelia’s handwriting, every detail mapped out with a perfection I hadn’t expected from her.

Site locations circled on printed maps. Notes on sourcing clients, old contacts of mine she had somehow tracked down and researched on her own. A rough sketch of a new company logo, clean and modern, nothing like the tired branding Rooffe had carried for years.

Even a rough budget breakdown was tucked in the back, numbers that suggested she had spent real hours on a phone with contractors and suppliers I had never once mentioned to her, cross referencing prices and availability like a woman who had done this work before, somewhere I didn’t know about.

“You built this,” I said, flipping through another page, genuinely stunned.

“I did.” Aurelia stood beside the desk, her arms crossed. “You love your work, Rieck. This isn’t just some way to pass the time. It’s a strategy. A way to break into the construction sector properly, build something new and even bigger than what your father took from you.”

I studied her for a long moment, the folder still open under my hands. “But why? Why did you do this?”

“Because you don’t like doing nothing.” She said it flatly, like the answer required no further explanation.

I almost laughed. “Who said I was doing nothing?”

“You have been pacing this apartment for weeks like a caged animal, Rieck. Don’t pretend otherwise.” A small, knowing smile tugged at her mouth. “You need something to build. It’s who you are.”

I closed the folder slowly, a small smile on my face despite myself. “This is impressive.”

“I know.”

I studied her, the confidence in her voice, the quiet pride she carried without needing me to hand it to her. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Since your father took the company from you. I didn’t want to say anything until it was ready to show you properly.” She reached over and tapped one of the pages, a list of former Rooffe employees with notes beside each name about their current positions. “Half your old team would follow you in a heartbeat, Rieck. You just have to ask.”

“You mentioned your father the other morning. What was that about?”

Something flickered across her face. “It was nothing. Just a random thought. It came and went.”

I didn’t believe her, the same way I hadn’t believed her a week ago, but I let it go.

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16:24 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 103

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54

55 vouchers

Hebvron arrived unannounced late that afternoon, his cane tapping steady against the hardwood the moment he stepped through the door.

Aurelia had left for the afternoon on some errand of her own, leaving me alone in the apartment when the knock came, which felt, in hindsight, entirely too convenient to be an accident.

“It has been a while,” I said, gesturing towards a chair he didn’t take.

“I have been occupied.” He studied the apartment with the same slow, assessing eyes he studied everything with.

“I have questions of my own, actually. Why do you hate Dawson so much, father? You have never given me a clear answer.”

“He forced me out of the family empire,” Hebvron said smoothly, settling his weight onto his cane. “Accused me of being too radical for the board’s taste.”

“There has to be more reason than that.” I studied his face, looking for the crack. “You don’t hold a grudge for twenty years over a boardroom vote, father. Not you.”

“There is nothing more.” The lie was easy on his tongue, the kind of falsehood he had likely told a hundred times before. “You seem to have been busy, Rieck. I hear things, even shut out of the company as I have kept

you.”

“That is because I have found a better use of my time.”

“You mean Aurelia.”

“Yes.” I held his gaze, steady, refusing to let him see any hesitation in it. “She is my wife, Father.”

At that moment something in his expression changed. Disappointment settled into the lines of his scarred face, subtle but unmistakable, the way a man looks at an investment he suspects is about to underperform.

He turned towards the door without another word, his cane tapping ahead of him, and I thought the visit had

ended.

But then he paused, his hand resting on the doorframe, his back still turned to me.

“I am beginning to think your marriage to her was a mistake.”

He didn’t wait for a response.

The door clicked shut behind him before I could say anything, leaving me alone with the words hanging heavy in the empty apartment.

I was still standing in the same spot, fists clenched, when Aurelia returned from her errands an hour later, the front door clicking shut behind her.

“Rieck?” She set her bag down slowly, reading the tension in the room the way she always did, her eyes

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16:24 Mon, Aug 3

Chapter 103

:

55 vouchers

flicking to my clenched fists, then to my face, then around the empty living room like she was searching for whatever had left it feeling so cold. “What happened?”

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